Current K-pop #8: U-Kiss, DBSK

September 29, 2012 at 10:36 pm

The first one of these I ever did was on MBLAQ and DBSK (when “Keep Your Head Down” came out), and I opened with, “One I love, one I love to hate (or just kind of…hate).” Still perfectly apt two years later.

U-Kiss’ “Stop Girl”

“Stop Girl” is great. It’s so great I think it might be one of the best boy band pop releases from K-pop this year*. The song itself is pretty straight forward, but it’s sexy and not overbearing, when in K-pop, being sexy usually coincides with being overbearing.

I love the choreography: it’s so clean and slick, my favorite kind. The formations work perfectly for the six members. The choreography does exactly what I love about song + dance in K-pop: it helps the song glide, and it gives the viewer a visual translation of how the music sounds. I love when choreography does that.

If I do have a complaint about the song, it’s that I can hear the limits of U-Kiss’ vocals as a group. I think a song like this lends itself to really good harmonization when done right, but the group isn’t strong enough to do it properly. The last line before the music cuts off, “Stop girl in the name of love,” could’ve been such a great closer if they held ‘love’ for even two beats longer and Kevin and Hoon’s adlibs building up to it weren’t so weak. Kevin sings way more than I thought him capable of (he pretty much does the chorus by himself during the lives), and Soohyun sings way less than I expected, which surprises me.

U-Kiss is a group I think K-pop fans collectively recognize the merits of, but for some reason the group just can’t do much to rope in new fans or gain footing in the biz, unlike groups like Beast, MBLAQ, Infinite, or even B1A4 as of late. Everyone pretty much agrees that U-Kiss promotes solid music (maybe barring “Shut Up,” worst song in the universe), are incredibly non-polarizing as far as groups go, but somehow they’re just lacking that magic that can launch them into the upper tiers of K-popdom.

* The release is so good I thought upon listening to it that, “Ah, maybe U-Kiss can finally win at something.” Then I realized they have stupid idiots for management because they’re wasting a perfectly perfect promotion cycle by going up against DBSK. Grumble.

DBSK’s “Catch Me”

I didn’t have a visceral reaction to “Catch Me” like I did with “Keep Your Head Down.” I think the song itself is fine; I even like the dubstep. But my hate is exclusively for the choreography. I actually have been loving what SM’s been forced to do in terms of accommodating choreography for two people, and I thought they did really well in “Maximum” and “Keep Your Head Down,” but “Catch Me” is just not happening. They’ve been a duo for two years now, and they’ve never had to go out of their way to illustrate so explicitly that they’re a duo, until now with this choreography. We get it. Mirrors, reflections, twins. Show, not tell, people.

Everyone’s movements are so big and over-the-top. I think all of SM’s artists are better legwork dancers than they are upper body movers, and it’s jarring to watch Yunho and Changmin shake and wave around so much. There is also some really whack lyrical movement shit going on in the dancing that feels completely out of HoMin’s elements. They are both not graceful enough of dancers to pull off the intro to that song and it’s embarrassing watching them attempt it. I really tried to get a better sense of this choreography by watching their dance video so I can be fairer to their efforts, but I had to constantly break for a palette cleanser. So, I ended up watching the dance practice for “Stop Girl” like six times or something to write this post.

Changmin has a really low penchant for Stupid, so I wonder how it was for him to learn this dance. Yunho always dances like his dance alone will save the fucking world, and without his movement, the rest of humankind shall perish. I really want HoMin to get some of that light, clean dancing that I referred to earlier because I think Yunho can be great with fast-paced, restrained movement (“Mirotic,” “Wrong Number”). Yunho overdances very easily and he needs reigned in choreography to keep him in check.

As for the album, I’m generally apathetic to it like I am with DBSK’s Korean albums. Some songs will grow on me over time, but as a whole, it’s whatever. I do really like “인생은 빛났다 (Viva),” it’s probably my favorite track off the album. I love the teasing call-and-response style and how relaxed their speak/rap is. Again, not being overbearing is important at this time in DBSK’s careers. I find the rest of the album to be pretty over-produced, which is rare since I think DBSK’s producers usually do a good job of letting DBSK’s voices speak for themselves.

All in all . . . Sigh, I can’t believe I have to watch “Catch Me” for another two years.

And just like two years ago, you shared a song that I probably wouldn’t have listened to, and liked it.
Um, great description of Yunho’s dancing…I dunno whether to laugh or be sad of the truth.

elaeye

To be fair, there were a couple of interesting moves in the choreo and really shows off how much cooperation there is between DBSK and their backup dancers. However, I totally agree a lot of the moves (HULK STOMP) are pretty over the top, some are incredibly dated/literal and it just comes across as really awkward if their whole bravado falters for even a second. Also, the dance looks exhausting. Hoping very hard there won’t be any injuries. I definitely prefer the smooth dancing a la Mirotic/Wrong Number – it’s cool, understated and says a lot more than the ‘in yer face’ dance that feels like it’s trying to overcompensate.

I’m sighing with you at the fact we’ll be watching this for 2 years. I’m sure they get tired of promoting the same song too. Hoping there will be a repackage with better material >:

leira

Finally a good song for U-Kiss – not a fan of theirs but considering they’re still performing Manmanhani on some recent shows is a sign of how little material they had to work with. The dance is great too, sexy in an appropriate way. On the other hand, I’ve stopped watching DBSK now – like you say, Yunho’s over-performing is exhausting to watch and I’ve never appreciated him musically speaking.

dreamsformortar

Surprisingly I do like “Stop Girl” quite a bit. I think the song is pretty and the choreography is clean and lovely, especially in the live performances. My loathing is reserved solely for the MV. I suppose I shouldn’t let it irritate me this much but I find it both boring and rage-inducingly over produced. Thank goodness for the lives or I may have just written this one off out of spite.

As for “Catch Me”, I don’t think uncontrollable laughter was quite the reaction they were aiming for with that choreography. It’s just so ridiculous. (I giggled and shouted “Wonder Twin powers activate!” when they bumped fists at the beginning and it was all downhill from there.) And it was poorly executed to boot. The mirrored parts are distractingly out of sync (which is enhanced I think by the decision to film them from an angle) and the rest is just awkward, messy and overblown. It’s sad because I love the song but there is just no way I can sit through the live performances for this.

Belle

Stop Girl is sooooooooo good. Best song of U-Kiss’s to date. It saddens me that they will probably never get the recognition they deserve especially since they’ve been releasing consistently good music. Such bad timing for them to be promoting it too with such strong competition from DBSK and G-dragon. Criminally underrated group!

I’m ever so slowly losing interest in DB2K. I feel like their Korean releases are declining in quality and their most recent album, along with their promotional track Catch Me, is no exception. Such a shame too considering they were my favourite group ever within Kpop (however that position is slowly being taken by EXO!) I still follow their Japanese material though which I consider so much better than their Korean music.

http://other-worldly.org Justine

Aside from how much I agree about so much in this post (I still think U-Kiss’ best song is Neverland but Stop Girl’s choreography is amazing), everything you said about Yunho, from the dancing to the over-performing is totally spot on. Perfect.